Hi drrob67,
No, there isn’t really a way to do this at the moment. Are you a coder by any chance? WordPress has a heartbeat API that pings the server at a regular interval. It could be used to implement something like this. But it’s not available in the plugin for now.
My recommendation otherwise would be to ensure that the tablet is plugged into the notification emails. You can include a link from the emails to the bookings page, so every time a new email comes in they can confirm or reject it directly from the email.
Hi thanks, for your answer. So the API is something that I definitely will look in to. But I’m a little lost what you mean by including a link from mail to the bookingspage. Can you maybe be some more specific?
And my idea of something like a pop up, isn’t that something to think about? I mean it would surprise me if i’m the only one with this question.
Ok well I’ve managed to set a header refresh for 20 seconds in the php page. So for now it’s ok. not the neatest way but it works.
Hi drrob67,
Here are a couple good introductions to the Heartbeat API: 1 and 2.
Beware with the header refresh every 20 seconds. It might make it difficult for you to perform actions on the page, as the header refresh might fire off right when you’re in the middle of confirming a booking.
An alert is a good idea and something I plan to look at in the future. I hope to release an addon in the future which would allow more comprehensive table management, particularly from tablets and such, to make things easier for these situations.
Regarding the email, the email templates can include any of the following template tags:
{bookings_link} A link to the admin panel showing pending bookings
{confirm_link} A link to confirm this booking. Only include this in admin notifications
{close_link} A link to reject this booking. Only include this in admin notifications
In this way you can confirm or reject a booking directly from the email. So if your tablet is logged into the website and gets an email, they can click on the link from there to confirm/reject the booking.
If you have a dedicated email address for bookings, this is probably the easiest way to get notifications on the tablet.
Thanks for the info Nate! I indeed encountered a refresh problem on the booking page itself. So that wasn’t a success. But i’m digging into the API.
Also I have to say that i’m glad that you’re so committed to your development. Not all of them are like that. Thanks for your effort and happy holidays!
